TikTok CEO: We've never provided data to Chinese government

Mr. Chu, I believe your company is unique among the ones represented here today due to its ownership by ByteDance, a Chinese company. Despite steps taken to wall off the data collected in the United States, under Chinese law and Chinese National Intelligence laws, all information accumulated by companies in the People's Republic of China must be shared with the Chinese intelligence services. ByteDance initially released TikTok in 2016, and efforts to wall off U.S. data with Oracle under the so-called Project Texas began in 2021. This effort was allegedly fully walled off in March of 2023. What happened to all of the data that TikTok collected before that?

Senator, thank you. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, which is majority owned by global investors, and we have three Americans on the board out of five. You are correct in pointing out that over the last three years, we have spent billions of dollars building out Project Texas. This plan is unprecedented in our industry and aims to firewall U.S. data from the rest of our staff.

I'm asking about all of the data collected prior to that event.

Yes, Senator. We have initiated a data deletion plan as discussed a year ago. We have completed the first phase of data deletion through our data centers outside of the Oracle cloud infrastructure and are now beginning phase two. This phase includes hiring a third party to verify the deletion work and deleting data from employees' work laptops as well.

Was all of the data collected by TikTok prior to Project Texas shared with the Chinese government pursuant to the National Intelligence laws?

Senator, we have not been asked for any data by the Chinese government, and we have never provided it.

Keywords

TikTok
ByteDance
Chinese law
Chinese National Intelligence laws
Data collection
Oracle
Project Texas
Firewall
Data deletion plan
U.S. data
Data centers
Third party verification

FAQ

Q1: Who owns TikTok?
A1: TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a company majority-owned by global investors. There are three Americans on the board out of five members.

Q2: What is Project Texas?
A2: Project Texas is an initiative started in 2021 to firewall U.S. data from the rest of TikTok's operations, involving Oracle. The efforts aim to protect U.S. user's data and were fully operational by March 2023.

Q3: What happened to data collected before Project Texas?
A3: A data deletion plan was initiated, completing its first phase where data in data centers outside Oracle's cloud infrastructure has been deleted. The second phase involves a third party for verification and deletion from employee laptops.

Q4: Has TikTok shared data with the Chinese government?
A4: According to TikTok CEO Mr. Chu, they have not been asked for or provided any data to the Chinese government.